So this summer I'm focusing my professional reading on spelling instruction and today I came across this wonderful strategy by Debbie A. Powell and Roberta Aram (2008) in The Reading Teacher. This strategy requires that break apart the word into syllables (not that earth shattering, I know) and then learn to spell each syllable instead of memorizing a whole word at a time.

So many kids looks at a big word and then get immediately overwhelmed when trying to learn how to spell it. This strategy helps, by breaking up spelling the word into more manageable parts. The steps to this strategy are:

Say and clap the word's syllables.

Divide the word into it's syllables and pronounce each syllable.

Say a syllable, then spell it, say a syllable, then spell it.

Circle syllables with harder spelling patterns.

Create a mnemonic device for the syllable. (I would think that this step is optional)